The other week on Twitter I remarked on seeing four covers with oranges on, and since then I have only been finding more.
There was also this poetry collection I reviewed a few years ago. And that’s not to mention the title references (e.g., Larger than an Orange by Lucy Burns, Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller, The Orange Grove by Larry Tremblay)…
or the books that are actually about oranges, like a pre-release memoir I’m reading now by a Florida citrus buyer’s daughter, Through the Groves by Anne Hull.
However,
Oranges are not the only fruit
There’s also
Lemons
I have read (or, in the case of the Russell, DNFed) these six:
I own these three and might consider reviewing them together as a “Three on a Theme” post:
And yes, there are more! (A few of these lemony covers are recent, but most are not; perhaps it’s a trend that’s on the decline, whereas oranges are on the rise?)
Peaches
N.B. Often used suggestively!! Or as a metonym for the American South.
I’ve read these:
and had a look at this one:
Plus a couple more I spotted:
&
Pomegranates
I did the briefest of searches for titles including the word “pomegranate” and was overwhelmed. People seem to see the fruit as evocative of indulgent cooking, or of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern travels. Not a lot of the results were recent, but here’s an upcoming book that caught my eye. It’s about a queer Black woman just getting out of prison for opiate possession, and has been recommended to readers of Yaa Gyasi and Jesmyn Ward, so sounds worth getting hold of.
(I have actually reviewed several pomegranate books, plus another with one on the cover – Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope.)
Have you read any of the books I feature here?
What cover trends have you been noticing this year?
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
Well noticed! Um, I haven’t seen any trends particularly, but covers are getting ever more colourful and able to make quite big statements these days. I often judge a book – at least in the first instance if it’s unknown to me – by its cover. And it works surprisingly often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh absolutely, I judge books by their cover all the time at the library or online when deciding whether to order. Sometimes the contents don’t live up to the cover, but that doesn’t happen too often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Goodness!! Lack of imagination springs to mind, but I tend to be a bit critical of a lot of modern covers which really do seem repetitive and cliched!
LikeLike
Better than the faceless women of colour trend!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This made me laugh!
However,
Oranges are not the only fruit
There’s also
Lemons
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha, thanks! I had fun with this post.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m liking the vogue for two tone covers – top and bottoms different contrasting colours – from Open Water (red/orange) to Nothing Special (pink/blue) and many others.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well spotted. Of my recent reads, The Meaning of Geese and the New Life are like that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do love a book cover with oranges on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s something cheering about them.
LikeLike
Peaches = sex or the South or both is such a good spot!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha, thanks! There was also one on the cover of a book about a niche sexual practice I happened to skim past on Edelweiss the other day, but I didn’t include it here!
LikeLike
I think there’s also one on the cover of a book about dating after a divorce…
LikeLike
Brilliant post! I particularly love the new Lorrie Moore cover. The fruit theme is much more pleasing than the ‘woman in a red coat/dress walking away’ motif which was everywhere several years ago.
LikeLiked by 2 people
For once I much prefer the UK cover; the U.S. cover of the Moore features a droopy angel.
Ah yes, I remember that on William Boyd’s Restless and Ian McEwan’s Sweet Tooth, among others.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent. I feel like I’ve seen a fair few silhouette women again but that might just be the Maya Angelous I need to shelve rearing up in my mind!
LikeLiked by 2 people
There are definitely still a lot of faceless women around.
LikeLike
What a fun post! A couple of years ago it was all melancholy flower arrangements, so I definitely prefer the fruit era.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh but I love a floral cover!
For We All Want Impossible Things, compare the yellow cover and lemon cake on broken plate (above, UK cover) with the U.S. cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60410002-we-all-want-impossible-things
LikeLike
OK I do prefer the flowers on this one, agreed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is quite funny how everyone jumps on a trend, isn’t it? I mean, Pineapple Street does not make me think of oranges with that title, does it? There’s also Harriet Tyce’s Blood Orange, which in the original cover had a martini glass against an orange background, but in the second cover did have some darker oranges.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do find it funny that they haven’t done the obvious for “Pineapple” Street! The U.S. cover is completely different, and much more appealing imho: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61246258-pineapple-street
I think that’s the book that forced Claire Fuller to change her title to Bitter Orange.
LikeLike
Interesting. A while back lots of books seemed to have grapes on their covers. I can think of two, at least.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes, good thinking. There was the UK hardback cover for The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld (which I think was supposed to be plums, actually, but looks more like a bunch of grapes): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43413011-the-bass-rock
A few years before there was The Wangs vs. the World, or at least the pink and red blobs look like grapes to me: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28114515-the-wangs-vs-the-world
I also DNFed Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32956008-sour-heart
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fruit covers are very ap-PEAL-ing, ha ha!
The Pineapple Street cover in America is very different.
As is Secret Lives of Church Ladies, which I really liked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m always fascinated by these decisions of how to market books in different countries. (At least there is a story about peach pie in Church Ladies so it wasn’t just a random choice.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
What fruit is this supposed to be?! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62315839-a-history-of-burning#
LikeLike